Fornham coach firm suspended over body damage

Minibus and coach company First Stop Travel (East Anglia) finishes a two week operations suspension on Friday night after a director drove a vehicle with body defects.

Deputy Traffic Commissioner Miles Dorrington said at a public inquiry last month that this would be the Fornham St Martin firm’s ‘last chance to improve’.

Director Glenn Edwards was stopped in November 2014 in an empty minibus with body damage and no annual test. The inquiry heard that a vehicle examiner later found the firm’s maintenance procedures were ‘not satisfactory’.

First Stop’s solicitor Tim Ridyard said this week: “It (the bus) was being moved from its maintenance contractor, where it had been sent for inspection and pre-annual test work, for repair of the sub-standard bodywork at other premises.

“The journey only took place at all due to a convergence of unforeseen events and did not involve the carriage of passengers.”